Department of
Happy National Postdoc Appreciation Week! WashU has a diverse community of over 850 postdocs from different parts of the world. Their commitment to research, teaching, and mentorship not only enhances the academic community at Washington University, but also plays a pivotal role in advancing science, technology, and scholarship across the country and around the world. We […]
Dr. Maggie Mullen has been awarded grant funding through the 2023 Victoria’s Secret Global Fund for Women’s Cancers Career Development Award, in partnership with Pelotonia & AACR, Targeting platinum chemotherapy resistance in ovarian cancer. **This two-year grant starts in September.** These accomplishments are impossible without our amazing research and clinical teams and the sponsorship of our […]
Eric P. Newman Education Center @ Washington University Medical CenterOctober 19, 2023 8:00 AM – October 20, 2023 3:30 PM Coordinator Michelle R Padgett, MS, ATC, Washington University CME Agenda This conference is offered as an in-person course only. Thursday, October 19, 2023 7:30am Registration & Continental Breakfast 8:10 Welcome – Makeba Williams, MD, NCMP Session I […]
The lab of Celia Santi, MD, PhD, has been busy this summer with scientific discussions and networking opportunities! Dr. Santi presented her lab’s work on non-hormonal contraception during the “Male Contraceptive” session at the Society for the Study of Reproduction (SSR) 56th Annual Meeting. The “Reproductive Sciences: From Innovation to Impact” SSR meeting took place in Ottawa, Canada, […]
Amanda Compadre, MD, and Lily van Biljon recently published an article in Clinical Cancer Research titled “RAD51 Foci as a Biomarker Predictive of Platinum Chemotherapy Response in Ovarian Cancer.” This paper demonstrates that RAD51 foci are a robust marker of platinum chemotherapy response and survival in ovarian cancer. This research was led by Mary (Maggie) Mullen, MD. […]
Magdalena Nelson, MBA, Director of Research and Business Administration in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, is this year’s recipient of the WashU School of Medicine Research Support Award. This award from the medical school recognizes employees for exceptional performance or cooperation, outstanding leadership, and superior quality of service. As a distinguished honors awardee, Magdalena was […]
The WashU Gynecologic Oncology Tissue Bank celebrated collecting its 100th tissue sample for bench-to-bedside research endeavors. Along with this notable achievement in specimen collection, the labs of Drs. Dineo Khabele and Maggie Mullen have instituted a newly organized process for collecting and managing samples, and are developing research on patient-derived organoids. “We couldn’t have done it without the hard […]
The Center for Reproductive Health Sciences celebrated its graduates! Congrats to all and good luck with your future endeavors!
The Mullen lab at the Siteman Cancer Center’s Center for Genome Integrity retreat. Viju Gupta, PhD from the Khabele lab also presented! Dr. Amanda Compadre received an honorable mention for the best Oral Presentation and Olivia Graham and Jeimmy Rodriguez of our Tissue Bank got an honorable mention for the best poster presentation. Big wins […]
The WashU Gynecologic Oncology Tissue Bank just celebrated collecting its 100th tissue sample for bench-to-bedside research endeavors. Along with this notable achievement in specimen collection, the labs of Drs. Dineo Khabele and Maggie Mullen with the Center for Reproductive Health Sciences (CRepHS) and the Division of Gynecologic Oncology (GynOnc) have instituted a newly organized process for collecting and managing […]
Members of CRepHS recently voyaged to Brisbane, Australia to present at and attend the 70th Annual Meeting of the Society for Reproductive Investigation (SRI). Sicheng Wang and Yiqi Lin (Wang Lab) both won the SRI President’s Presenter’s Award, Patricia Strutz, MD, MSCI (England Lab) and Zhexian Sun (Wang Lab) both won the Poster Award, and […]
“The study team, led by Yong Wang, Ph.D., and Alan Schwartz, M.D., Ph.D., at Washington University in St. Louis, and Alison Cahill, M.D., at the University of Texas at Austin, initially developed EMMI using a sheep model and reported their findings in Science Translational Medicine. In the new study, the team tailored EMMI for human clinical use […]
Juan Ferreira, PhD, postdoctoral research associate in the Santi Lab, recently earned a fellowship award from the Lalor Foundation for his research on a new assay to evaluate sperm fertilization capacity in infertile patients. “I would like to express thanks to Drs. England, Blanco, Lishko and Frank for their support of this project,” Ferreira states, “and […]
WashU’s Deptartment of OBGYN has once again achieved a US TOP 10 RANKING! Funds awarded to our department by the National Institutes of Health totaled $6.4M in 2022, as reported by Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research #BRIMR. Congrats to our amazing & dedicated research teams!
The members of CRepHS held a Valentine’s Bake-Off and card-making party. Photos courtesy of Julie Emmerich!
To fertilize an egg, human sperm must undergo a process in which the membrane becomes more negative inside. The ion channel responsible for this membrane hyperpolarization has long been unclear. In this publication, the Santi and Denton labs describe a screen to identify inhibitors of a strong candidate – the sperm-specific potassium channel SLO3. They […]
Celia Santi, MD, Ph.D., recently received a two-year grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The $435,000 award, beginning November 2022, will support her lab’s efforts in screening and characterizing a new class of female-controlled non-hormonal contraceptive agents using in vitro and in vivo assays. Dr. Santi’s research project is titled, “SLO3 inhibitors: a […]
Two new trainees recently began their fellowships through the Department of Ob/Gyn’s T32 training grant titled, “Clinical Outcomes Research Training in Female Lower Urinary Tract Disorders,” led by Co-Principal Investigators Jerry Lowder, MD, MSc, and Siobhan Sutcliffe, PhD, and funded through the NIH NIDDK. Dr. Victoria Leigh Brown received her PhD in Anthropology from Binghamton […]
The Center for Reproductive Health Sciences (CRepHS) is pleased to share our newsletter, released February 2022. The CRepHS Newsletter will be distributed on a quarterly basis.
PhD Candidate Juan Ferreira from Dr. Celia Santi’s lab successfully defended his thesis in January 2022, entitled “SLO2.1 channels: a new molecular mechanism to regulate uterine excitability.” Congratulations, Dr. Ferreira!
Dr. Sarah England recognized at Washington University in St. Louis’ annual Founders Day celebration
Dr. Ramakrishna Kommagani receives an NIH R01 grant
Study will evaluate testing access and if pregnant women with COVID-19 need specialized care
Research shows no benefits for infants
Determinants of Urogenital Tract Homeostasis in Aging
The Long Road to Fertilization: From the Bench to the Bedside and Back Again
Targeted treatment reduces number of disease-causing microbes in mice
Effects of high-fat, high-sugar diet on heart passed down three generations
No increased risks to newborns, study shows
Brooke Liang has been selected to receive mentored training through the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s (HHMI) Medical Research Fellows Program.
BME Senior Design Project Award
What can we do to be prepared for the next epidemic? What have we learned over the years from HIV work in pregnancy? What are the findings on vertical transmission of ZIKV? How can the rapid flow between murine findings help improve human health? These and other equally important findings will be presented and discussed […]
The womb was thought to be sterile, but some scientists argue that it’s where the microbiome begins.
Honor recognizes long-term commitment that has benefited medical school
Bin Cao, PhD, has been named a 2017 STAT Wunderkind.
Pregnancy researcher recognized for studies of Zika infection, preterm birth
Carmel Martin-Fairey, PhD, postdoctoral research scholar in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, has received a research fellowship award entitled “Role of peripheral oscillators in the timing of birth” funded by the National Institutes of Health – Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Prematurity is the greatest contributor to infant […]
Yong Wang, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, has received a new $3.75 million award entitled “Quantification of neuroinflammation in Alzheimer’s disease using Diffusion Basis Spectrum Imaging” funded by the National Institutes of Health – National Institute of Aging. Alzheimer’s disease is preceded by at least a decade of clinically silent […]
Noted researcher encourages tenacity and tackling new challenges
Celia Santi, MD, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, has received a new award entitled “SLO3 K Channel: A Novel Target for Contraception” from the National Institutes of Health. In this one-year-long study, Dr. Santi aims to acquire a deeper understanding of the role of ion channels in sperm fertility. Her […]
Premature babies are prevalent in the United States, with one in every 10 children born before 37 weeks.
Yong Wang, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, has received a new $300,000 award entitled “PET-MRI Imaging of White Matter Damages and Inflammation in AD” from the BrightFocus Foundation. The 3-year study aims to develop and validate a novel PET-MRI imaging method by integrating amyloid PET and diffusion basis spectrum imaging […]
Katherine Fuh, MD, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, has received a new $100,000 grant from the Mary Kay Foundation entitled “Predictive Kinome for Treatment of Chemoresistant Ovarian Cancer”. The project uses a new therapy to inhibit an exciting new protein, DDR2, and improve response to chemotherapy. It also looks at […]
Treatment prevents virus from crossing placenta to infect fetus, mouse study shows
Chinwendu Amazu, the Medical Scientist Training Program student working toward her MD/PhD degree under the direction of Dr. Sarah England, has been awarded the 2017-2018 Porter Physiology Development Fellowship. The Porter Physiology Development Program aims to encourage diversity among students pursuing full-time PhD studies in the physiological sciences and their participation in the American Physiological […]
Grace Y. Lee, undergraduate student and a member of the England Lab, received the Barbara A. Horwitz and John M. Horowitz Outstanding Undergraduate Abstract Award and the David S. Bruce Excellence in Undergraduate Research Award from the American Physiological Society for her outstanding work on “Novel genetic variants in the oxytocin receptor predict oxytocin non-responsiveness […]
Indira Mysorekar, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Associate Director of CRepHS, has received a new $3.04 mil. grant entitled “Mechanisms of Zika Virus Maternal-Fetal Transmission” in collaboration with Michael Diamond, MD, professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases. Zika virus (ZIKV) is an emerging mosquito-transmitted […]
Dr. Mysorekar and Dr. Moley discussing their Zika research
We are happy to announce that CRepHS has welcomed several new members: Sangappa Chadchan, PhD – has joined Dr. Kommagani’s lab at the end of March 2017. Dr. Chadchan completed his PhD studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. Previously, he worked at CSIR – Central Drug Research Institute, Division of Endocrinology, in […]
Findings help explain UTI link to sexual activity